DRUG CLINICS SEEING METH CASES SOAR

A Report On Treatment Figures Came As The Senate Acted To Restrict
Medicine Used To Make The Drug.

WASHINGTON - Drug-treatment centers have seen a substantial rise in
the number of people seeking help for methamphetamine abuse, a report
released yesterday said.

As trafficking in the highly addictive drug has spread across the
country, the number of meth users admitted to substance-abuse clinics
more than quadrupled from 1993 to 2003, according to a review by the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The report was released hours before the Senate passed legislation to
combat meth by limiting sales of cold medicines used to make the
illegal drug.

States in the Midwest and South that had few meth-abuse patients a
decade ago are seeing a sharp rise in the rate of admissions to
treatment centers, the report said. The findings mirror the trend of
meth abuse moving gradually from the West - where the drug first
became popular - across the Midwest and South.

"It's not that the prevalence of meth is changing, but the addictive
nature of this drug and the meth crisis is showing up in
drug-treatment programs," said Mark Weber, an associate administrator
for the agency. "They're being overwhelmed by the number of people
showing up for treatment."

Nationwide, the admission rate for treatment of methamphetamine or
amphetamine abuse rose from 28,000 in 1993 to nearly 136,000 patients
in 2003, the report said. The review analyzed data on the
approximately 1.8 million patients admitted each year for
substance-abuse treatment.

The report found 18 states with meth treatment rates higher than the
national rate: Oregon was highest, followed by Hawaii, Iowa and California.

Northeastern states had relatively low rates of treatment admissions
for meth and amphetamine abuse in 1993, and those rates remained low
in 2003, the report said.

Part of the reason meth has become epidemic in some states, experts
say, is that it is easy to make in illegal makeshift labs and is
extremely cheap compared with other drugs.

"You get can get addicted to meth very quickly, and the slide downward
is much faster than drugs like alcohol, marijuana or heroin," said
Stephan Arndt, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa.

"These people crash and burn fast," Arndt said.

In his budget request last month, President Bush proposed $25 million
in new money for meth treatment.

The Senate, meanwhile, passed anti-meth legislation yesterday - as
part of the bill reauthorizing the USA Patriot Act - that would
require cold pills such as Sudafed to be placed behind store counters.
Those medicines contain pseudoephedrine, which can be extracted and
used to cook meth in makeshift labs.

Under the bill, consumers would be limited to 3.6 grams, or about 120
cold pills, per day, and 9 grams, or about 300 pills, per month.
Buyers would need to show photo identification and sign a logbook.